A New Starter Battery

We bought ours from the chandlers at methley. Not being a big shiny outfit like midland, in fact very much the opposite, the prices were not out the way.

ISTR it was an exide, don't know if it's still going several years on.

But as gazza has said a decent motor factors will have them too. We saved a bit by getting a 75 aph rather than a 85 aph, this was on the advice of the chandlers who easily could have sold us a more expensive one.

It was fine on our Isuzu 42.

Jaguar favour Varta batteries which seem to be ok I have seen plenty at ten years old going strong, At Eurocarparts I noticed that Duracell now do car batteries! you could maybe experiment to see what they are like?
But for me I would wait for it to die mine on Joyce is now over ten years old it is a lucas I think and it wont be replaced until it stops starting the boat

I wouldn't buy a new battery until you need it, Ross. Standing about unused the Warranty period will still be running from the time you buy it, and unless you can can keep it permanently on a charger that's supplying the correct 'float' voltage for the type of battery, or very regularly keep it up to the correct, maximum SoC with a freshening-up charge at the correct rate, it will begin to sulphate and lose some performance and capacity, which is why it's always best to buy batteries from suppliers with a high rate of stock turnover.

If I remember right you've got a single cylinder engine (Sabb ?) fitted with decompressor gear in your boat, so when your present battery does eventually reach the end of it's useful life it will still be capable of getting you going, by turning it over on the starter off compression, for several days/weeks before it gives up the ghost completely.

Ah... here we are... does this work?

drive.google.com/file/d/1-oAE_AL4e4_xHmqSRgR6cGjszGnJ5d_6/view?usp=sharing

Alternator belt looks as though it could do with nipping up a wee bit.

Foxy, next time you are down our way have a look in our engine hole, I'll provide the marigolds and Jif

Wouldn't that mean fuel is still being pumped in and the burning chamber will get flooded?


Yes, fuel will be injected into the combustion chamber on every second revolution of the crankshaft, but it's a very tiny quantity and, if your injector is in good working order, it's in the form of a very fine mist (some engine manufacturers from bygone days, Gardners for one, did actually refer to injectors as 'atomisers'), and, far from being harmful, can in fact, have some beneficial effects.

For one, it helps a cold engine to turn over and start more easily by providing a bit of lubrication for (potentially) dry cylinder walls, and by in effect providing a 'richer' mix of fuel and air in much the same way as the choke works on a petrol (spark-ignition) engine.

Another benefit, especially for engines that have stood idle and not run for a good while, is that being turned over off compression (and therefore not firing) is that the engine's (lubricating) oil pump can send some oil round and through all the potentially 'dry' bearings that the residual oil will have drained away from since the engine last ran.